National Bank to acquire Canadian Western Bank | Page 2 | Motive Financial | Discussion forum

Jowett said
I have maxed out my CDIC insurance with CWB and Motive, and I also have RIF's spread over CWB, Canadian Western Trust and Valiant trust.

I am wondering how these other entities will be treated in this takeover. Will they be part of the deal and become part of National Bank, or are they considered as separate companies?

Canadian Western Trust and Valiant are both separate as far as CDIC is concerned.  

if you are maxed out with Motive, can you still buy the Motive products and request that the CDIC Insurance be applied by CWT? This is how it is with oaken you can select your own insurance company between home bank and home trust. Or do you have to deal directly with their separate entities which all have different rate offerings as well in this respect the oaken set up is great. You get their rates not the posted rates at the individual HomeTrust or home bank.

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The Competition Bureau has just given the NBoC the Green Light to buy Motive's parent, CWB . . .

BNN Link ➡ https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/economics/2024/09/26/national-bank-receives-competition-bureau-clearance-for-deal-to-buy-cwb/

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Two more hurtles to go ... but it looks like it's pretty much a Done Deal.

Dean

Acquiring CWB will be great for NB, but will it be better for us savers is another question. I don't have any dealings with CWB itself so I cant comment on that, but there are 2 things about Motive that keep my funds with them:

- great rates on HISA & GICs, always at or near the top of the charts here
- can set GIC length by month... perfect for TFSAs, can always have them mature in Dec

Hopefully NB can maintain that when they take over. My gut feeling says that these will disappear... the rates will become mediocre, but still better than the big 5, and GICs will be fixed years only like everyone else.

I won't be a new client to NB as they are my brokerage, and other than a few administrative hurdles and delays, I have been trading commission free happily for the last couple of years with them. They are still very form based in terms of applications and transfers, so having a local branch (should they decide to keep all the CWB locations) will be helpful in those cases, rather than snail mailing.

Agreed.

What is really confusing, but totally awesome, is what they have been doing since the takeover has been announced... their 120day GIC rates are exceptional, and the elimination of fees on the Savvy account make it much more usable and flexible. It's as if CWB is trying to earn score extra points on their report card with client count and assets under management.

First time I've seen a Motive bank commercial on national TV....

everhopeful: I doubt it. This sort of stuff is usually handled by bureaucrats, not policy-makers.

That was quick... I guess Leblanc liked it. I wonder how long until we find out if Motive stays the same, loses features/rates, or gets dismantled completely.

It will make sense to consolidate some offerings. Stephen Smith eventually moved to consolidate Home and Fairstone banks but kept the Oaken online retail offering so far, and it looks like he will probably continue to do so. Seems there is a particularly loyal following by retail investors that somewhat defies explanation.

The only question in the National case will be which ones, when and how.

AltaRed said
It will make sense to consolidate some offerings. Stephen Smith eventually moved to consolidate Home and Fairstone banks but kept the Oaken online retail offering so far, and it looks like he will probably continue to do so. Seems there is a particularly loyal following by retail investors that somewhat defies explanation.

The only question in the National case will be which ones, when and how.  

It's important to point out the Home Trust and Fairstone merger hasn't yet received all of the regulatory approvals, and it came well before the National Bank and Canadian Western Bank. So the fact the larger NB/CWB acquisition was approved fully first was a bit surprising to me.

That said, assuming the Home Trust and Fairstone merger is ultimately consumated, I think we can stop calling it the Stephen Smith-owned bank. While still privately owned, it will have a much broader shareholder base, including a U.S. private equity firm and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

I also think Home Trust/Fairstone was more of an efficiency play, and Fairstone was less in deposit gathering as the bank parent company was primarily in credit card lending with the Walmart Rewards MasterCard and a small brokered deposits channel. The consumer finance subsidiary, Fairstone Financial, is primarily a competitor to goeasy financial and Propel Holdings' digital consumer finance brands. So, they really didn't have a direct-to-consumer deposit gathering brand, so keeping Oaken made sense.

I can also foresee a future IPO for a combined Fairstone/Home Trust banking group now.

Whereas with Motive Financial, it's been without a division manager for nearly two years and has lost half its deposits from a peak over $1 billion to now reportedly under $500 million (exact details unavailable as CWB no longer reports details separately, so this is estimated based on a projected run-off rate from the last year for which details are available).

The structure of the CWB deal is somewhat different. Initially, NA will just acquire the shares of CWB on a primarily share exchange basis. However, since the initial acquisition arrangement was announced, they have a separate application into OSFI to legally amalgamate CWB into NA and the CWB trust companies into NA trust companies, similar to how RBC acquired HSBC Canada, to occur at some point after the acquisition closes and subject to OSFI and Minister of Finance approval. When that happens, CDIC rules on merged institutions will apply with respect to insured deposits.

I own CWB shares but do not plan to own NA shares and may sell in advance of the takeover concluding, once I receive the final dividend payment in January. Has a record date been set yet?

Cheers,
Doug

KamWest said

RBC totally screwed up Ally financial

Not necessarily. For us as customers, sure, we lost out. RBC didn't buy them for that, though. They bought them for the large portfolio of dealer finance automobile loans (Ally used to be known as GMAC). They subsequently sold off the ResMor Trust Company mortgage book to MCAP. The GICs were converted to RBC GICs and the HISAs shut down.

Motive will be dead in the water

Agreed.

SAVEN is my savior  

Also agreed. Now that they've become the first Ontario provincial credit union to expand membership to all Canadians, they have competitive rates and a superior banking platform / technology, I'm considering them and Canadian Tire Bank. Time to move out of Manitoba and close my Outlook Financial and Hubert Financial memberships. Outlook Financial is okay, but Hubert Financial has been totally f*cked over, with Access Credit Union choosing a grossly inferior online banking platform to replace MemberDirect (which nearing End of Life).

Cheers,
Doug